Oscar Voting 101: Essentially, the voting process for the Academy Awards is divided into two stages: nominations and voting. Different members of the Academy (defined below) take part in different stages, so it's important to know when each stage is and who votes in what and so on.

Nominations: At the end of each year (around the last week in December) nomination ballots are sent out to each member of the Academy. The Academy (full name: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) is a group of around 6,000 individuals in the film industry. About a quarter of them are actors, but it includes people from all sections of filmmaking from directors to producers to make-up artists and sound mixers. Each of these members belong to an Academy Branch. Someone like Martin Scorsese belongs in the Directors' Branch, and Angelina Jolie in the Actors and Sandy Powell in the Costumers and so on. For the most part, it's obvious.

For the actual nominations, each member gets a ballot designated to that branch, wherein the members of that branch nominate their peers for their specific awards. For example, writers can only nominate people in the Screenplay categories; editors can only nominate people in the editing categories etc. However, everyone can nominate films for Best Picture as that is a wholly synoptic category. Members are then asked to rank their top 5 for each available award. So, for someone like Quentin Tarantino - who's in the Writers' Branch - he could nominate people in Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.*

I could go into detail about the mathematics of how the voting system works (though members rank their five choices, it is, in reality, their first one that makes the difference), but suffice to say that in all of the categories except Best Picture, the 5 films/performances that receive the most Number 1 votes get nominated.

For Best Picture, things are more complicated, especially this year. After the self-described 'failure' of switching to 10 Best Picture nominees, the Academy switched to a system where there could be anywhere between 5 and 10 nominees. The way the number of nominees is chosen is that after all the ballots for Best Picture have been sent in, only those who have received 5% of the total Number 1 placed votes can go forward into the next round. This year, although it seems like the The Artist has things all sewn up, that there were 9 nominees indicates that there were pockets of passion for many of the remaining films (hence nominations for The Tree of Life and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: two very divisive films). In a sense, in order to get a Best Picture nomination, you need to have a relatively small fanbase in the Academy that puts your film squarely at Number 1 on their ballots.

Voting lasts from the beginning of January for about two weeks. When all the votes have been counted and verified by accountants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the President of the Academy (accompanied by a young actress, probably nominated at the last year's ceremony) announce the main nominations on US breakfast TV.

*Tarantino could actually nominate people in Best Director as well because of a cool rule that states if you yourself have been received a nomination in a category outside your branch, you can nominate people for that category from the next year onwards.

Voting: About a week after the announcement, final ballots are sent to all of the members of the Academy. This time, everyone in the Academy can vote for the winner in every category (for the most part). So, actors can now vote for writing awards, and cinematographers can vote for sound awards and so on. Instead of ranking the films, voters simply choose one. Unlike the complicated mathematics that goes into determining the nominees, voting is relatively simple, and the first-past-the-post system is used.

Certain categories are only open to voters can can confirm that they've seen all of the nominated films. Those include the Documentary, Foreign Language, and all of the Short categories. Because not everyone has the time or the desire to see all of these, the eventual winners are normally determined by a much smaller group than the Academy as a whole, leading to an often esoteric set of winners in any given year.

Also, Best Picture proves to be the big, important exception to the FPTP voting described above. Voters still need to rank these ones and the category is determined in the same way (for more info, look at the Single Transferable Vote system). Because of the voting system, to win Best Picture at the Oscars, the film needs to be a consensus favourite, which is why The Artist will win on Sunday. No one hates it, even though there has been a backlash in recent weeks.

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Hopefully that's explained everything, but feel free to ask more questions if I've only caused more confusion.

That explains everything and then some. I'm actually pretty surprised how fair it all seems once you get past the fact that only 6000 people are able to nominate and vote in the whole process. I guess that's a high number, but I probably see thousands of names in the credits of a single movie so in that respect it seems like a lot of people are being left out.

I recently got off my high animation horse and saw some non-Pixar 3D movies: Megamind and How To Train Your Dragon. Both were a lot better than I expected. Are there any other movies which are on the same level of quality? And I mean quality story, characters, etc., not animation quality.

I'm a big fan of Rango. In addition to being absolutely gorgeous to look at, its story and characters are definitely interesting. I hesitate to use the word 'quirky' in describing it, but it definitely has an oddball sense of humour. Added to that a great voice cast, as well as a loving pastiche of film noir and westerns, and that's Rango.

It still seriously grinds my gears that The Artist will win. I've developed a severe hatred for that movie in the same way I developed an almost unnatural hatred for Slumdog Millionaire back in 2008.

Meanwhile, I saw Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close tonight. It was a fantastic film! It's no secret that I can't stand children, and this child was perhaps the most overtly obnoxious one I've ever seen on screen - yet I fell in love with him and his story. So there's that. Plus, Sandra Bullock did an amazing job with her unforgivably small amount of screen time, as did Viola Davis. Not quite sure if Max Von Sydow's performance, while decent, was necessarily worthy of an Academy Award nomination, but hey why not. It's not like he'll win anyway.

Well, I have seen The Artist and while it's good, it's not necessarily what I'd called the best thing I've seen. I think it's winning people over because it's a throwback to the 'classic' Hollywood. Basically I see it as doing well because of nostalgia.

Thanks! (Belatedly.) Just dropping by to cast my vote for Snowy... and to say that I had no opinion on Adele before this week, but that she is now beginning to irritate me. (It's not even her fault - it's just that EVERY SINGLE TABLOID NEWSPAPER over here seems to think it's news that she flipped everyone off at the Brits, and insists on printing full-page pictures of her middle finger, with accompanying commentary. Only it's not news. It isn't. She got cut off and felt a bit annoyed AND THAT IS IT. How journalists can eke 500 words out of one finger I will never know.)

/cease rant

Also, I haven't seen The Artist but I have seen Uggie the dog surfing. Because British chatshows are weird.

Correct me if I'm wrong: you still haven't seen The Artist as of yet, so how can you have a hatred towards it?

Because it's going to win based on the fact that it's a silent movie and people haven't done silent movies in forever. I feel like people always vote for the "little film that could" like in the instance of Slumdog Millionaire because people quite simply love an underdog.

I'd really like for The Help to win because it was the most amazing film I have seen in a long, long time - but objectively speaking, Hugo probably deserves it the most.

I'm unsure about seeing The Help because I heard that it's overall message is "black people can't do anything without the help of white people" or something to that effect. I've heard it's got great acting and everything else you'd want in a movie, but I'm afraid I'd have this nagging thing in the back of my mind the whole time and wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

That's not the message I took away from the film whatsoever. The opportunity that the black women had came through a white woman, yes, but this is set in 1963 (iirc) and the level of oppression and lack of education that was experienced at that time meant that yes - these particular women were not equipped to make any sort of change without the help of a white person. The tone of the film was not at all condescending toward the black people though. In fact, I saw it more as a symbiotic effort - it required the black and white people to work together to create the necessary change.

In essence though, it's a story set nearly 50 years ago in a very different landscape - it's not at all suggesting that black people (particularly today) are in any way inferior to white people or dependent upon them - in fact the whole idea of the film is to fight exactly that notion. So I don't know who gave you that idea, but it must be a very cynical-minded person.

- I enjoyed Crystal's montage in the beginning where he's inserted into films. Those are always good. But, the song? Meh. And he was also meh for the rest of it
- Hugo didn't win enough
- Potter was snubbed in not being nominated for all kinds of things
- Why did they show a clip of Twilight at one point?
- I liked that year when they sang the nominated song and did interpretive dance to the film scores. They should have done that instead of the Cirque bit

I heard it on the radio at work, OMG I was so excited, Jon really had me thinking that there was really no chance of it happening! She SO deserved that, SO MUCH. I'm so psyched that the cycle is finally broken - that horrid cycle of nominating Meryl and never giving her anything. SO PSYCHED!

I was pretty bitter about Tree of Life not winning Best Cinematography and Apes not winning Best Visuals. The surprise of the night was Streep winning Best Actress; I really did think Davis was a shoe-in but I guess I'm wrong. It's a pleasant surprise nonetheless! Maybe we'll get to see Davis again in another strong role in the future.

Hugo destroying the technical department left a bitter taste in my mouth. :<

I was pretty bitter about Tree of Life not winning Best Cinematography and Apes not winning Best Visuals. The surprise of the night was Streep winning Best Actress; I really did think Davis was a shoe-in but I guess I'm wrong. It's a pleasant surprise nonetheless! Maybe we'll get to see Davis again in another strong role in the future.

Hugo destroying the technical department left a bitter taste in my mouth. :<

If it were up to me, Potter would have won Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Alan Rickman), all the audio and visual awards, and makeup. It's just a tragedy that the Academy never took those films seriously.

If it were up to me, Potter would have won Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Alan Rickman), all the audio and visual awards, and makeup. It's just a tragedy that the Academy never took those films seriously.

(ALSO GUYS THIS IS POST 3000 WOO)

I agree. I was really hoping that they just give it a bunch of stuff this year (finally) for the contribution of the series as a whole - like they did with Return of the King.

But it wasn't even nominated for best picture. A major upset since they can have 10 pictures, and they only selected 9. Potter could have been film 10. What the hell?

Critics love the entire series. Deathly Hallows Part II was one of the best reviewed films of the year, I don't understand the snub at all. It's not just a mainstream blockbuster. They're critically acclaimed, expertly crafted, and well acted. And no accolades at all :(

Half of Flight of the Conchords have an Oscar. Go Bret McKenzie and the Muppets!

Rango and A Separation got their respective awards (Animated Feature and Foreign Language Film), even if they both deserved more nominations and wins.

Mark Bridges can finally lay claim to the title of Oscar winner; an awesome costume designer unheralded for far too long.

Plummer, even though it was a foregone conclusion.

Emma Stone's presenting. And her ability to make Ben Stiller look tiiiiiiny in comparison to the massive red bow on her dress. Will Ferrell/Zach Galifinakis were also good.

Things I'm ambivalent about

Adapted Screenplay: I really dislike The Descendants, but am sorta happy that Dean Pelton from Community now has an Oscar (and did a kickass Angelina Jolie's Right Leg impression). Stupid Alexander Payne for taking up most of the speech.

The Artist and Hugo dominance: I like The Artist and appreciate that Hugo was technically well done, but none of their wins were particularly exciting, no matter how 'deserved' they both were.

Meryl. She did give a great speech, but I really would have loved to hear what Viola had to say. Still, at least the Meryl lovers will shut up about giving her another Oscar for... maybe 5 minutes? One can hope.

Robert and Gwyneth. Not entirely sure how that came across in the room, but it was definitely a mixed bag.

Things I'm sad about

Original Screenplay. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but the huge cheer when A Separation won Foreign Film led me to believe that an upset in here was possible. But no. Woody-lite had to win. Still, at least it wasn't Margin Call. Ugh...

Billy Crystal. COME BACK JAMES FRANCO/ANNE HATHAWAY! ALL IS FORGIVEN! Seriously, though, I'd take a trainwreck of polar opposite presenting styles over Billy Crystal bombing and knowing it any day of the week.

How BOOOOOOOOORING the whole thing was. From the awards (when the only two surprises are Best Editing and Meryl Streep winning an award, there's no real fun in that) to the pacing of the show to the MONTAGES, OH THE MONTAGES, to the Cirque du Soleil performance that did nothing on screen. Bleh.

WAIT THERE'S MORE! Boooooo for no Oscar to Emmanuel Lubezki. How many *******s does a cinematographer have to give to get an Oscar?

"Man or Muppet" won best song and that's really the only thing I cared about.

I'm kinda glad that Harry Potter didn't get awards. I know it was a fun movie, well done, etc., but c'mon. It's the 8th movie in a series. Enough already. We've seen it before.

That was kind of point. We all thought they were saving the accolades for the end, since the other entries were all kind of overlooked.

...

I was really looking forward to seeing Billy Crystal again. His video montage at the start was good, as usual, but the rest was just flat. And he clearly knew it. I don't know why. Different writers? Different producers? Something just didn't mesh and it felt thrown together. Not nearly as bad as last year's hosts, but not anywhere near as good as it could have been. There needs to be spontaneity. You should be able to pick on the audience. My vote is for a Martin Short and Steve Martin combination next year. ... or let the Muppets host it

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